Cameras often include a rectangular sensor which is used to capture one or more images. The sensor of a camera normally includes a rectangular sensor area with a bottom edge of the sensor area normally extending parallel to the bottom edge of the camera housing. The sensor maybe and often is mounted on a printed circuit board which also has its bottom edge extending parallel to the bottom of the camera.
While the conventional placement of a sensor with its bottom edge extending parallel to the bottom of a camera works well for many applications, such a configuration and arrangement of camera elements can limit camera design and/or the types of camera modules and/or their mounting arrangement.
It would be desirable from an implementation standpoint, due to space constraints and/or other reasons, to allow for camera modules to be mounted at a wide range of angles relative to the bottom of a camera in which the module or modules are mounted with different modules sometimes being mounted at different angles relative to the bottom of the camera device.
When mirrors are used and a camera module is mounted at an angle the portion of a scene area captured will be affected by the use of the mirror and angle at which the camera module is mounted. As a result of the use of the mirror and the camera mounting, a desired scene area maybe clipped if the conventional sensor mounting with the sensor being positioned having one of its edges parallel to the bottom of the camera housing was implemented.
In view of the above it should be appreciated that there is a need for new and improved configurations of camera components, e.g., optical chains and/or sensors mounted on mounting boards which facilitate the inclusion of multiple camera modules in a camera device potentially with different orientations relative to the bottom of the camera and potentially with one or more camera modules including mirrors.